Sight Unseen

Melvyn Goodale and David Milner

Reviews the basic organization of the visual brain, providing an engaging introduction to the functional organization of the human visual system

Provides students and lay readers with a useful introduction to human neuropsychology

Fully illustrated in colour, giving the reader clear and accessible information about the results of different approaches to understanding vision

Includes 'break-out' boxes which review fundamental issues and methods in modern cognitive neuroscience and visual science

Sight Unseen

Second Edition

Melvyn Goodale and David Milner

Description

Vision, more than any other sense, dominates our mental life. Our conscious visual experience of the world is so rich and detailed that we can hardly distinguish it from the real thing. But as Goodale and Milner make clear in their prize-winning book, Sight Unseen, our visual experience of the world is not all there is to vision. Some of the most important things that vision does for us never reach our consciousness at all.

In this updated and extended new edition, Goodale and Milner explore one of the most extraordinary neurological cases of recent years--one that profoundly changed scientific views on the visual brain. It is the story of Dee Fletcher--a young woman who became blind to shape and form as a result of brain damage. Dee was left unable to
recognize objects or even tell one simple geometric shape from another. As events unfolded, however, Goodale and Milner found that Dee wasn't in fact blind -- she just didn't know that she could see. They showed, for example, that Dee could reach out and grasp objects with amazing dexterity, despite being unable to perceive their shape, size, or orientation. Taking us on a journey into the unconscious brain, the two scientists who made this incredible discovery tell the amazing story of their work, and the surprising conclusion they were forced to reach. Written to be accessible to students and popular science readers, this book is a fascinating illustration of the power of the 'unconscious' mind.

Sight Unseen

Second Edition

Melvyn Goodale and David Milner

Table of Contents

1. A tragic accident2. Doing without seeing3. When vision for action fails4. The origins of vision: from modules to models5. Streams within streams6. The anatomy of conscious and unconscious vision7. Why do we need two systems?8. How do the two systems work?9. Getting it all together10. Postscript: Dee's life twenty years on

Sight Unseen

Second Edition

Melvyn Goodale and David Milner

Author Information

Melvyn Goodale, Canada Research Chair in Visual Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, Canada,David Milner, Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Durham University, UK

Sight Unseen

Second Edition

Melvyn Goodale and David Milner

From Our Blog

By Mel Goodale and David Milner
Vision, more than any other sense, dominates our mental life. Our visual experience is so rich and detailed that we can scarcely distinguish that subjective world from the real thing. Even when we are just thinking about the world with our eyes closed, we can't help imagining what it looks like.